David Vadiveloo

Early life and education

Vadiveloo holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia and a Graduate Diploma in Film and Television from the Victorian College of the Arts at University of Melbourne, Australia.

Awards

Vadiveloo's work in human rights and social justice education saw him awarded the 2005 Australian Human Rights Commission Award for Individual Community Achievement, specifically for his work with Indigenous and marginalised peoples. In 2005 he was also the youngest person to be Highly Commended for the Human Rights Medal, recognising lifelong commitment and achievements in human rights. Vadiveloo's screenworks have received numerous nominations and awards including the 2002 Canadian Golden Sheaf Award for Best International Documentary, the 2005 Australian Interactive Media Industry Association Award for Best Interactive Learning and 2009 Australian Film Institute nominations in both Drama and Documentary.

Legal and Human Rights career

Vadiveloo began work as a solicitor and barrister in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1994. He worked on the successful Central Land Council Native Title Application, Hayes v Northern Territory, brought by the Arrernte people of the Alice Springs region.

In 1996, Vadiveloo was a policy advisor to the Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission. He facilitated national community consultations with Indigenous and culturally diverse communities about the operation and effectiveness of the Australian Racial Discrimination Act. His consultations formed the basis of the 1996 State of the Nation Report.

Between 2001 and 2003 Vadiveloo worked alongside former Australian Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti and Bill Barker, former Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Human Rights and Indigenous Issues section as a trainer in the Australia-Indonesia Specialised Training Project II, facilitating human rights training programs with Indonesian NGO's, military and government employees in areas of race discrimination, torture and conflict resolution.

Between 2006 and 2011 Vadiveloo facilitated curriculum reform and social justice media programs in Aboriginal communities throughout Australia, including Yirrkala and Cape York (which became the subject of the 2-part ABC Television documentary Voices From the Cape).

In 2008 at the request of the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission Vadiveloo devised and facilitated the Burn project with at-risk youth from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds in inner-city Sydney. This 6 month identity and culture based project was a crime prevention initiative that also led to the production of the multi-awarded Burn film.

In 2013, Vadiveloo was Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation. His facilitation of Indigenous education reform since 2010 in Jabiru with Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson has resulted in a close collaboration between Vadiveloo and Aboriginal historian Dr Gary Foley.

In 2015 Vadiveloo devised and facilitated an Identity and Culture pilot program with youth in custody at the Parkville Youth Justice Facility in Melbourne. The program included a number of profile artists including Archie Roach, Radical Son and Abdul Abdullah.

He is a Board member of the Institute for Cultural Diversity and consultant to the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.

Film career

In 1998, after completing the Victorian College of the Arts Film and Television post-graduate degree, Vadiveloo returned to Alice Springs and established a media program at the Irrkerlantye Learning Centre, working with Indigenous children from the Town Camps of Alice Springs and re-engaging them with schooling through media.

Vadiveloo's documentary Trespass (2002), about the Mirrar leader Yvonne Margarula and her battle to stop the Jabiluka mine site, won multiple awards and his documentary Beyond Sorry (2004) about Australia's Stolen Generations premiered on Australia's ABC Television and was a festival favourite at the 2004 Sydney Film Festival.

Vadiveloo directed and co-produced Us Mob (2005), the first Aboriginal children's television series in Australia and the first interactive Indigenous television series in the world.

Two films written and directed by Vadiveloo were nominated at the 2009 Australian Film Institute Awards: the half-hour crime drama Burn (created with at-risk inner city youth) was nominated for Best Short Fiction Film and Voices from the Cape (which documented a program run by his company Community Prophets in the Aboriginal community of Aurukun in Cape York, Australia) was nominated for best documentary series. Vadiveloo received Best Director nominations for both films at the Australian Directors Guild Awards in 2010.

Vadiveloo founded the media entertainment and social justice company Community Prophets in 2005. The company facilitates socio-economic reform programs and produces and teaches film and television in partnership with marginalised communities.

Filmography

2002 Bush Bikes – Writer/Director/Producer

2002 Jabiru 0886: Trespass- Writer/Director/co-Producer

2004 Beyond Sorry – Writer/Director/Producer

2005 Us Mob – Writer/Director/co-Producer

2008 Voices from the Cape – Writer/Director/co-Producer

2008 Burn – Writer/Director

2009 The Voice of our Spirit – Editor (Dir: Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson)

2012 Project Chariot – Producer/Editor (Dir: Rachel Naninaaq Edwardson)

2012 Songline to Happiness – Producer (Dir: Danny Teece-Johnson)